Means for preparing stencil cards for addressing machines



2,878,916 ING MACHINES March 24, 1959 J. H. STIELOW MEANS FOR PREPARING STENCIL CARDS FOR ADDRESS Filed Sept. 9. 1957 United States Patent" MEANS FOR PREPARING STEN( II-L CARDS FOR ADDRESSING, MACHINES John H. Sfielow, Hamburg-Langenhorn, Germany Application September 9, 1957, Serial No. 682,704 Claims priority, applicationGermany September 21, 19st 1 Claim. Cl. 197-135 The invention relates to novel and improved means for preparing cards of the. type used in addressing machines and the like. More particularly the invention relates to novel and improvedmeans for holding and guiding stencil cards of the type indicated in a typewriter during the imprinting, of the cards. Said im printing-may consist of both typing and stenciling.

As is well known, the stencil type cards used in addressing machines ordinarily comprise a fiber stencil inserted in a frame and provided, in addition to the stenciled matter, with a typed caption along an edge of the card toserve for identification, classification, filing or'the like. In this description the wordimprinting is considered to include both the typednand the. stenciled matter, or" either of them, as the case may be.

It has been commonpractice to; provide a card of this type with the imprinting while said'card is being held in a holder which forms part of an attachment. on a typewriter. These known holders have several serious disadvantages which are aptto impair the quality of the product and to cause difliculties and limitations in the imprinting procedure. One of said disadvantages is that the card has been held plane in the holder so that it engages the cylindrical platen practically only along a line while forming air pockets between the card and the cylinder circumference immediately below and above said line of contact. Naturally, such an arrangement fails to provide the proper impact support for the types on the type bars andresults in an imprint which is inaccurate and unclear and generally speaking of inferior quality. Another disadvantage is that the known holders are designed to hold cards of one size only so that it has been necessary to use more than one typewriter attachment in the imprinting of cards of varying sizes. The present invention eliminates the abovementioned and other disadvantages associated with known means of the type indicated.

Accordingly, it is an important object of the invention to provide a typewriter attachment of the kind indicated in which the cards are held in a curved condition during the imprinting thereof, the curvature of the card being such that, in conjunction with the yieldability of the card material, it provides for a solid impact support area for the types on the type bars against the cylinder. This makes for a clear and accurate imprint with sharp and even contours.

Another object of the invention is to provide novel and improved means of the character indicated for holding and guiding the cards in a curved condition during the imprinting and during the movement of the cards from one imprint line to another.

A further object of the invention is to provide in a mechanism of the character indicated novel and improved means for accommodating cards of varying size which are reliable and readily insertable and removable without disturbance of other parts of the mechanism.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be "ice apparent from; the following description in conjunction with they accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 shows a front elevational; view of an embodi ment of the invention,

Fig. 2 shows a cross-sectional view taken along the.

line 2 2 in Fig. 3, and

Fig. 3 shows a plan view of the same embodiment as,

Fig. 1 with a portion broken away to show certain details.

On the cylinder shaft 7 of the; typewriter (not shown), from which the regular cylinder has been removed a,

short cylinder 6 is; mounted. At a distance from; the

ends of-said cylinder 6 -the shaft 7 carries two side plates 3 in which said shaft 7 is rotatably mounted. The. side plates 3v are provided, on their.- inner sides with.

identical curved. grooves 3a for slidable accommodationof the end portions, of a frame ljwhich has securedthere to a pair of clips 1a, lbslidably engaging the frontedges of the side plates 3, said front edges being curved to Spacing rods 9 and," 17 maintain the side plates 3 in proper parallel relation, to each other and said-rods 9, 17 also serve other pur-/ extend parallelwith the grooves 3a.

poses which will be'explained below.

The frame 1 is substantially U-shaped with the web portion of the U disposed horizontally at the lower proximately equaltothe thickness of a fiber stencil card 1 2 except towards the upper end where the member 4 has an extension 4a in the, form of a blade spring tending to engage acorresponding extension 1"of the frame; 1. The extensions 1; and 4a are bent in a direction;

from each other, as shown. The outer edges of the members 4 are toothed as indicated at 412 in Fig. 3 and meshing with gear wheels 8 secured on the shaft 7.

In the side plates 3 a shaft 13 is rotatably mounted, said shaft 13 being polygonal in cross-section and provided at its center with a transverse arm 18 which is rotatably secured to the shaft 13 by means of a pin 18a. The arm 18 carries at its free end a transverse shaft 15 on which two rollers 10, 11 are rotatably mounted which are urged towards engagement with the cylinder 6 by means of a spring 12 one end of which is secured eccentrically to the shaft 13 while the other end is secured to the adjacent side plate 3. A lever 19 is secured to the shaft 13 to provide a handle by means of which the rollers 10, 11 may be lifted from the cylinder 6 against the action of the spring 12. A catch plate 16 is secured to the side plates 3 below the shaft 13 and provided with an upstanding rear portion having a smooth edge 16a. On the rod 17 a paper roll 20 is rotatably mounted between end plates 21, 22 and the paper strip 14 from said roll 20 extends over the smooth edge 16a of the catch plate 16, below the shaft 13, between the cylinder 6 and the rollers 10, 11 and below the rod 9 and the lower edge of the frame 1. The means (not shown) for removing and replacing the paper roll 2%) may be of any known kind. Each leg of the U-shaped frame 1 is provided with a longitudinal slot 23 adapted to slidably accommodate the neck of a knob St: on a distance piece 5 which through this means is insertable at the bottom of the space between the frame 1 and the member 4. Distance pieces 5 of varying height may be used in order to support cards 2 of varying height.

In operation, when a stencil card 2 is to be imprinted, said card is inserted between the members 1' and 4a and pushed down until its lower edge engages the bottom of the space between members 1 and 4 or, if distance Patented Mar. 24, 1959 pieces 5 are used, until said lower edge of the card 2 engages the upper edge of said distance pieces 5. This insertion of the card is preferably performed with the frame 1 in raised position. position as described above, the frame 1 is then lowered by proper turning of the cylinder knob (not shown) at either end of the shaft 7, said turning of the shaft 7 causing the lowering of the frame 1 in the grooves 3a by the meshing gear wheel 8 and teeth 4a on the member 4.

If a caption is to be typed at the top of the card 2, this typing is first performed and thereafter the frame 1 is raised a proper distance to bring the first stenciling line into proper place on the cylinder 6, and so on.

. The typewriter ribbon (notshown) may, of course, be

brought into and out of function by customary well known means as required. The paper strip 14 serves to protect the cylinder surface and it is moved forward and torn off as required. The tiltable mounting of the arm 18 in the shaft 13 ensures that the rollers 10, 11 engage the paper strip 14 with equal pressure. The distance pieces 5, instead of being inserted from above through the slots 23, may be inserted from the vertical edge of members 1 and 4 which would dispense with the need of the slots 23. In this case the knob 5a may comprise a side extension on the distance piece 5 folded over the edge of the frame 1 to clamp against the front surface thereof.

While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, many modifications thereof may be made by a person skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention, and it is intended to protect by Letters Patent all forms of the invention falling within the scope of the following claim.

What I claim is:

Means for holding and guiding a stencil card in a typewriter during imprinting of said card, comprising a substitute cylinder secured to the cylinder shaft of the With the paper strip 14 in typewriter, stationary side plates carried by said cylinder shaft beyond the ends of said substitute cylinder and providing a rotatable mounting for said cylinder shaft, curved grooves in the inner surfaces of said side plates, a frame slidably mounted in said grooves and having a surface of the same curvature as said grooves, means for holding a stencil card against said curved surface of the frame and in engagement with said substitute cylinder, curved gear rack means secured to said frame, gear means secured to said cylinder shaft in meshing engagement with said curved gear rack means whereby rotation of said shaft causes sliding movement of said frame in said grooves to place different areas of said card in engagement with said substitute cylinder, shaft means extending between said side plates in parallel relationship with said cylinder shaft, a roll of paper strip rotatably mounted on said shaft means with the free end portion of the strip extending partly around said substitute cylinder between the circumference thereof and said stencil card, rod means rotatably mounted in said side plates in parallel relationship with said substitute cylinder, a transverse arm connected with said rod means to rotate about the longitudinal axis of said arm and extending towards said substitute cylinder, a roller shaft mounted in said arm transversely thereto, a roller rotatably mounted on each end of said roller shaft for engagementwith the paper strip on the substitute cylinder,

and spring means connected with said rod means and at least one of said side plates to yieldably urge said rollers against said paper strip on the substitute cylinder.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

